“Fluke.”
That’s what Penn State head coach Sarah Shire Brown called the ending of the team’s 2022 season.
While teams around the country were celebrating firsts, so was Penn State. Penn State’s first, however, was not the kind one wants to celebrate. The Nittany Lions missed qualifying for regionals as a team for the first time. The season was a rough one, with beam hurting the Nittany Lions’ score week after week. The routinely low scores took regional qualification out of the control of the athletes, and the team ultimately missed out.
Senior Cassidy Rushlow recounted last season’s experience as “disappointing” and something she did not want to have happen again. One thing Brown told the team was, “it was only a fluke if it didn’t happen again,” and hearing that gave the whole team the motivation to put in the work in the gym.
For Penn State, the preseason started on April 1st. The whole team got together and began to work towards the goal of competing on regionals weekend. The focus was on “going the extra mile” and perfecting the details. All the returners and most freshmen came to campus to train together over the summer, which helped the team work daily towards a common goal and grow a deeper bond.
Rushlow felt a…
